"Numb" - U2

Promotional Release

Track Listing:

Background Information

“Numb” was never commercially released as an audio single, and only video singles were available to purchase commercially. There were however, a number of audio promotional items issued to promote “Numb” as the first song off of the “Zooropa” album.

The first promotional item was a strange 12-inch single sent to radio stations. The single had only a white label with the name “Numb” and a note “Produced by Fee Dognoodle” at the bottom. It contained the same label on both sides, and indeed the 12-inch played the same track on both sides. The vinyl was packaged in a generic yellow Island records sleeve. There was no indication that this was the new U2 release. The band were attempting to see if the song itself would get any play, knowing that the song sounded little like anything they had done before. The version found on the 12-inch is the album version of the song. “Fee Dognoodle” was not a new producer. Instead, those familiar with Brian Eno’s love of anagrams, can quickly figure out that it was a way of crediting the producers. It can be unscrambled to “Flood, Edge, Eno,” the three actual producers on the track.

After the 12-inch a number of more traditional promotional items were released. A 7-inch for juke boxes containing the album version of “Numb” on both sides was produced in the UK. It was released in a plain white generic sleeve. A 5-inch CD single was produced in the UK for promotion in Europe, and it featured an edit of “Numb”. This CD was released in a slimline jewel case, with a photo insert, featuring a black cover, with the “Cosmo” face on the front, and surrounded by the stars, as would be found on the “Zooropa” album. This release has been suggested to be limited to only 250 copies, however it does appear to still show up on auction sites from time to time.

Two additional 5-Inch CDs were produced for the North American market for promotion. These two CDs featured an interference pattern on the CD, one in orange and one in red. This pattern would also be used on the “Zooropa” album itself (purple), and for promotional singles for “Lemon” (yellow), “Zooropa” (green), and “Stay” (blue). The first of these to arrive at radio was the red interference pattern which featured “Numb (Edit)” as had the UK promotional CD, as well as the album version of “Numb”. The second to arrive at radio was the orange interference pattern which also featured two tracks. This time the album version of “Numb” was included with “Numb (The Perfecto Mix)”, a remix of the title track by Paul Oakenfold. This remix by Oakenfold has not been released on any other release to date. The mix itself includes an additional lyric in the form of a chant of “In cold blood” which is not featured on the original mix or the edit.

The lyric “In Cold Blood” used in “The Perfecto Mix” comes from a poem that Bono wrote titled “In Cold Blood” dealing with the Bosnia conflict. At one point U2 discussed Bono reading the poem over the music for “Numb” before hitting upon the final version of the song which featured The Edge on lyrics. Oakenfold included the line in this rare mix of the song.

There have been reports of a Brazil 5-inch CD also used for promotion. Investigating this release has suggested that this is a bootleg item, and was not released at the time that the CD was being promoted.

Liner Notes

Numb (Album Version):
Written by The Edge. Produced by Flood, Brian Eno and The Edge. Mixed and Engineered by Flood and Robbie Adams. Recorded in Dublin, March – May 1993.

Numb (The Perfecto Mix):
Written by The Edge. Produced by Flood, Brian Eno and The Edge. Mixed and Engineered by Flood and Robbie Adams. Recorded in Dublin, March – May 1993. Additional production and remix by Paul Oakenfold.

Numb (Edit):
Written by The Edge. Produced by Flood, Brian Eno and The Edge. Mixed and Engineered by Flood and Robbie Adams. Recorded in Dublin, March – May 1993.

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